Oh puhlease. What you mean to say is that they don't know how to watch movies according to the principles you wish to prescribe to them.

I wish that guy playing Knightley's love interest wasn't so ugly. Would it kill the producers to find a hot guy worth gawking at? God...

Why didn't the movie grab me?

Because....the acting was flat and it lacked emotional punch.

But I was grabbed by certain elements, like the costumes, the camerawork, the score, the editing, and the sets.

Each of the two basic segments begins in an off-kilter way that took some adjustment, but I was completely sucked into the film through the beautiful direction and (especially) editing. McAvoy and Knightley are good, but the film is owned by the three actresses playing Briony. The ending is pretty incredible on a number of levels. A-

Wow, I'm not even sure I saw the same movie as most of you. I found it to be blandly directed and almost totally lifeless from beginning to end. Even the much-ballyhooed one-take, which I would normally be a huge fan of, didn't move me or excite me at all. I just followed it mindlessly. I suppose my problem is I didn't buy any of it: I didn't buy the romance, I didn't buy the tragedy, I didn't buy Briony's regret. I actually kinda liked the first third-ish, up until Robby was arrested. It set up the story in an interesting way; it craftily showed Briony's distorted perception, which culminated in her false accusation. But once the story shifts to Robby and the war it just dies. We should have stayed with Briony the whole time, seen her grow up, seen her regret worsen and deepen, seen her ultimate act of atonement as actually meaning something. But instead we're left with some shoddy war scenes, a choppy final act, and a completely unfair and unrealistic ending.

I mean, it's not terrible. I thought Ronan was terrific and the dialogue (at least in that first third) was sharp and witty and enjoyable. But after just having seen TWBB, it just doesn't even compare.

You're definitely staying at 2.5 now.

Let me ask: If the ending were different, would you have been more satisfied with the film? I don't think it's fair to blame the ending; this is, word-for-word, what McEwan had in the book.

And, I def. think the Robbie scenes are essential. Without the build-up, there'd be too much ambiguity. You'd think "She's all wrapped up about what she did as a thirteen year old? Who gives?!"

It's also not fair to compare Atonement to TWBB. TWBB isn't even a movie - it's like the eighth wonder of the world, or somethin'.

I am glad you liked Blood. My Mom saw it today, and shot me an e-mail saying "I don't get why you were so taken with it." I had to baloney a response, telling her I get her point, that the movie's hard to love and frustrating. But, inside, I'm thinkin' more along the lines of... "Mom, I'm sorry, but you just don't understand film." A disgusting thought, but it's the truth. I'm convinced that to be a true film aficionado, you must, must, must love Blood. So welcome to the club.

My whole problem with the film is not just the ending, it's the entire last two acts; basically, everything after Robby is arrested. The film loses focus, it jumps around too much, and, as a result, scenes that should be powerful and meaningful feel short-changed and awkward. If the whole film is supposed to be a representation of Briony's autobiographical novel, it should have stayed with Briony the whole time. The romance between Cecilia and Robby was built up enough, I think, in the first third to last throughout the film without any more explicit depictions, and it would have felt more natural to stick with Briony. I dunno. It just felt off to me throughout.

And I couldn't help but compare to TWBB, but even without that, I wasn't impressed. It felt like a missed opportunity to me.

Agree 100%.

And I saw it well before seeing TWWB (or No Country, Zodiac, Rataouillie, Into the Wild, Juno - which all make my top 10) so i wasnt spoiled for quality at the time.

10/10 -> A

I have no words to say how beautiful and powerful this movie is...

Yesterday I thought No Country would be my favorite of the year. I have nothing to add about the ending; I thought it was excellent.

9.0/10
A+

I completley agree with the bolded part, especially concerning Cecillia and Robbie. Essentially to really be invested in this movie, you have to really buy the love that was lost when Briony made her mistake, and buy the pain that came as a result of it. If that isn't achieved, it's really a domino effect, and it's game over in terms of loving the movie or not. And as much as the costumes and score and editing and cinematography may be pretty(and I believe in singling out aspects of a movie, no matter what is said in this thread I have no issue with saying Elizabeth 2 has great costumes if the movie as a whole is shit), I simply didn't believe they fit in this world and didn't really get the romance. The movie I can't help compare it to is Pride and Prejudice - In that movie, everyone fit into this world perfectly, the family felt like a real family and the dialogue felt like real people talking. Atonement has absolutely none of that, there is no aura of being transported to another place whatsoever. Looking at someone like Rosamund Pike's character in P&P, nobody in this movie has even close to the same lifeforce of which that character had.

The first 30-40 minutes were great then it went downhiLL and Lost interest after that. Saoirse Ronan gave a superb performance though and the score was quite worthy of the oscar win.

B

ATONEMENT (2007)

The first part of ATONEMENT is so brilliantly made and absolute perfection. It was looking like it would be my favorite film of the year. It was all so captivating and the cinematography breathtaking. I loved how the events unfolded and we saw how things looked through Briony's eyes and were then given a closer look as to how they really happened. The first part of the film is more extraordinary than anything I've seen in any movie of 2007. It is disappointing that the second half can't live up to the tremendous promise the first half showed. The war scenes, even though they don't end up taking up too much time, really drag things down. They just weren't very interesting or well put-together. They were just kind of there. The stuff with an older Briony was really interesting though, just not as utterly fascinating as the first half.

Joe Wright did an amazing job of directing. The acting by everyone was great, especially young Saoirse Ronan. Also great were Romola Garai, Keira Knightley, and James McAvoy. Besides in the beginning Knightley and McAvoy don't have a lot to do, but they were excellent there. The score music is the best of the year, as is the cinematography. The editing was well-done. I thought it effortlessly moved back and forth in time without being remotely confusing.

Overall, the first part is off the charts amazing, and the second half was merely very good. I liked how everything came together in the end, but it should have been more devastating. It was sad, but didn't make me feel as overwrought with emotion as it should have. I wanted it to rip my heart out, and it easily could have had it been handled better. All of the ingredients were there for it to. It didn't pack the emotional punch of "Brokeback Mountain," another tragic romance that spans years. But still, as is, ATONEMENT is one of the best films of the year. It deserved all of the award nominations it got.

Grade: 9/10 (A-)

How were Celia and Briony related? Celia was built like an ironing board with hair while Briony turns out to be buxom. The typewriter noises grew tiresome after the first escapement. I also thought the movie needed to be longer.

The acting was alright except for Marshall (the rapist), who seemed like a molester when he offered the red headed kids chocolate and stared a bit too longingly at Lola.

Maybe the book did a better job, but I did not buy into Briony's reasons for her deeds. She saw her sister having sex so she took the opportunity to frame Robbie for rape? That seemed a bit overblown, even for a 13 year old. And the way she found them in the library by noticing a single star pendent on the floor in the foyer...a bit of a stretch that even Dickens wouldn't buy.

Still, the technical aspects and my love of Knightly force me to award the film a B.

Caught this on HBO a couple of days ago. I picked it up on DVD when it first came out but hadn't watched it since theaters.

Yeah, if 2007 hadn't been one of the best years in movie history, this would easily be the best movie of last year. Such a masterpiece.

Still punches me in the gut utterly superb melding of story and authentic characters.

I am reading the novel right now. The adaptation is so incredibly faithful.

I absolutely adore this movie

I absolutely adore this movie and this book.

For that matter, almost anything McEwan has ever written.

Even his 2006 novella "On Chesil Beach" was ace. Is there a better "mainstream" writer working today? Probably not.

Still my favorite movie of last year.

Bradley Witherberry what is wrong with you?

Why are you so obsessed with not-so-subtly and condescendingly mocking people for how much they liked a movie? It's both annoying and strange. Why don't you just realize other people have different opinions from yourself and not act so weird about it.

I know you will probably respond with something about how I'm a big hypocrite because I've "attacked" the movies you've liked, but from what I recall, I only did that in retaliation because you do this for everything and I find it incredibly irritating. If I didn't at some point, then I apologize, because that's uncool.

i'm not going to go into final act problems or i didn't buy the characters or the war or any of that. i'm simply going to say that this movie was quite possibly one of the msot boring pieces of cinema i ever had to sit through. i think i graded this film an F and thats where its staying for me.

Actually, I just quoted nine people from this thread who had quite similar opinions to myself...

Well, Bradley...

Atonement is no Soul Plane, that's for sure...